Tip and adapter for an earthworking bucket

ABSTRACT

A tip and adapter assembly for an earthworking bucket has a replaceable tip mounted on an adapter. The adapter has a mounting end fitted into a socket cavity of the tip, which are provided with suitable mating surfaces for transferring loading forces from the tip to the adapter. The adapter is provided with an ear that projects into a U-shaped notch in each side of the tip. A gap is provided between the ear and the notch to indicate that excessive wear has not occurred in the tip/adapter interface. However, contact between the ear and notch serves as a visual indicator that excessive wear has occurred. The notch also serves as a fuse to ensure that the tip breaks due to excessive loads before the adapter.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to a tip and adapter assemblyfor an earthworking bucket and the like and, more particularly, to anovel interface between a tip adapter carried on the bucket and a buckettip.

BACKGROUND ART

Earthworking implements, such as buckets for loaders and excavatorscommonly employ replaceable tips or teeth that engage the earth beingworked or materials being excavated or loaded. Because of the highlyabrasive materials encountered, bucket tips wear out rapidly and need tobe replaced in order to protect the parent material of the bucket and tokeep the bucket working at peak efficiency. Bucket tips are typicallymounted on mounting structures referred to as tip adapters and arefrequently subjected to high impact and prying forces that must betransferred from the tip into the adapter. To accomplish this, theadapter has a mounting nose that is received into a socket cavity of thetip. However if the forces acting on the tip become so great as to causeeither the tip or adapter to break, it is more desirable to have the tipbreak, rather than the adapter as the adapter is more costly and moretime consuming to replace.

The forces and impact loads on the tip also cause wear between themating surfaces between the socket cavity of the tip and the mountingnose of the adapter. Therefore, its also desirable to provide atip/adapter interface with adequate load carrying surfaces to minimizesuch wear and to extend the usable life of both the tip and adapter as aresult of such wear.

While it is desirable to minimize such wear on the adapter, it cannot becompletely eliminated. In addition, such wear is not readily apparent asthe adapter nose is hidden from view due to being encased within thesocket cavity of the tip. If too much wear occurs on the interfacesurfaces, the tip becomes exceedingly loose and wear between the tip andadapter interface surfaces accelerates and frequently results inpremature tip failure or the loss of the tip from the adapter.Consequently, is also advantageous to be able to visually determine whenthe contacting interface surfaces of the adapter become worn to a pointthat replacement of the adapter is desirable to prevent the prematurefailure of the tip or its loss.

Because tips are quite frequently replaced due to rapid external wear,it is desirable to be able to quickly and easily remove the worn tip andreplace it with a new one. Many types of retention devices, such as pinsand the like, have been used in the past to retain the tip onto theadapter. Some typical examples of retention devices used for retainingbucket teeth are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,986 issued Dec. 3,1991 to Larren F. Jones for Excavating Tooth Point Particularly Suitedfor Large Dragline Buckets; U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,824 issued Dec. 28, 1993to Erwin D. Cornelius for Tooth Assembly with Leaf Spring Retainer; andU.S. Pat. No. 5,423,138 issued Jun. 13, 1995 to Richard E. Livesay, etal for Tip to Adapter Interface.

Many such prior retention devices perform satisfactorily, but are eithercomplex and expensive, or require special tools or the large exertion ofeffort to remove and replace the retainers. Other retainers may simplyfail during use do the high loads exerted on such retainers during use,resulting in the loss of the tool from the implement. It is thereforehighly advantageous to use a hammerless type of retainer. One suchhammerless retainer is the compression spring retainer disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 5,937,549, issued May 19, 1997 to John L. Bender et al andassigned to the assignee hereof.

The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of theproblems encountered in the use of prior art tools and retentiondevices.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a tip andadapter assembly is provided for an earthworking bucket that includes anelongated adapter and a replaceable tip. The adapter has a rear mountingportion adapted for mounting the adapter to the bucket and a front tipmounting nose for receiving a bucket tip. The tip mounting nose has atop surface, a bottom surface and a pair of side surfaces, each of thetop and bottom surfaces having a longitudinally extending, centrallydisposed rib protruding therefrom. Each of the side surfaces have acentrally located ear protruding therefrom. The replaceable tip has anelongated body disposed along a longitudinal axis and tapering from awide rearward mounting end portion to a narrow forward ground engagingend portion. The mounting end portion has a rearwardly opening socketcavity for receiving the front tip mounting nose of the adapter. Thesocket cavity has pair of side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. Thetop and bottom walls each have a central, longitudinally disposedrecessed groove therein for receiving a respective one of the ribs ofthe adapter. Each of the side walls has a notch therethrough adapted toreceive a respective one of the ears of the adapter.

In another aspect of the present invention, a replaceable bucket tip isadapted to be detachably mounted to a mounting nose of a bucket adapterby means of a retainer. The replaceable bucket tip includes an elongatedbody disposed along a longitudinal axis and tapering from a widerearward mounting end portion to a narrow forward ground engaging endportion. The mounting end portion has a rearwardly opening socket cavityhaving a rectangularly shaped open end. The cavity is defined by pair ofside walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. Each of the top and bottomwalls have a central, longitudinally disposed recessed groove therein,and each of the side walls are generally parallel to each other and eachhave a notch extending forward from the open end toward the groundengaging end. The notch has a length sufficient to weaken the tip so asact as a fuse whereby before a vertical force acting upon the groundengaging end portion of the tip that would be sufficient to cause thebreaking of the adapter on which the tip is mounted will result in thebreakage of the tip first.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bucket tip and adapter assemblyembodying the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1, but with the tip shownin section;

FIG. 3 is a reverse perspective view of the adapter shown in FIG. 1 byitself;

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the tip shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a rear end view of the tip illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a portion of the tipand adapter assembly of FIG. 1 illustrating an ear and notch thereof;and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of a retainer for retaining thetip to the adapter of FIG. 1.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Referring to the drawings, one exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention is disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 2 where a bucket tip and adapterassembly is shown at 10 for an earthworking bucket (not shown).

Earthworking implements, such as an excavator/loader/dragline bucket,are adapted to normally engage the ground in a primary direction oftravel. In other words, they are manipulated to dig or scoop material ina particular direction by the earthworking machine and/or the operatorof such machine. In the present case, the primary direction of travel istypically parallel to and in a direction away from a cutting edge 12 ofthe bucket, as designated by arrow 13 in FIG. 1.

The tip and adapter assembly 10 includes an adapter 14, a bucket tip 16and an elongate retainer 18 for detachably retaining the tip 16 onto theadapter 14.

The adapter 14 has a rear mounting portion 22 adapted for mounting theadapter to the bucket cutting edge 12 and a front tip mounting nose 24for receiving the bucket tip 16. As shown in FIG. 3, the tip mountingnose 24 has a top surface 26, a bottom surface 28 and a pair of sidesurfaces (one of which is shown at 30), each of the top and bottomsurfaces 26, 28 have one of a pair of longitudinally extending,centrally disposed ribs 32, 34 protruding therefrom. Each of the sidesurfaces 30 have a centrally located ear 36 protruding therefrom, witheach ear 36 having a rounded forwardly facing end 38.

As best seen in FIG. 4, the replaceable tip 16 of the tip and adapterassembly 10 has an elongated body 40 disposed along a longitudinal axis20 and tapers from a wide rearward mounting end portion 42 to a narrowforward ground engaging end portion 44. The mounting end portion 42 hasa rearwardly opening socket cavity 46 for receiving the front tipmounting nose 24 of the adapter 14. As seen in FIG. 5, the socket cavity46 has a rectangularly shaped open end 48, a pair of side walls 50, atop wall 52 and a bottom wall 54, the top and bottom walls 52, 54 eachhaving one of a pair of central, longitudinally disposed recessedgrooves 56, 58 therein for receiving a respective one of the ribs 32, 34of the adapter 14. Each of the side walls 50 are generally parallel toeach other and have a generally U-shaped notch 62 therethrough adaptedto receive a respective one of the ears 36 of the adapter 14.

The notches 62 extend forward from the open end 48 toward the groundengaging end portion 44 of the tip 16. Each notch 62 is provided with alength sufficient to weaken the tip so as act as a fuse whereby before avertical force acting in the direction of arrow 63 upon the groundengaging end portion 44 of the tip 16 that would be sufficient to causethe breaking of the adapter 14 on which the tip 16 is mounted willresult in the breakage of the tip 16 first.

The socket cavity 46 has an end wall 64 that defines a planar forcetransmitting surface 66 oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal axis20 and facing in a direction opposite to the direction of travel 13. Thetip mounting nose 24 of the adapter has a planar front end surface 68(FIG. 3) disposed in abutting contact with the planar surface 66 of thecavity 46 when the tip 16 is mounted on the adapter 14, wherebylongitudinally oriented forces on the tip 16 in a direction opposite tothe direction of travel 13 are transmitted into the adapter 14 throughthe abutting planar end surfaces 66, 68 of the tip 16 and adapter 14.

As shown in FIG. 6, each of the notches 62 have an interior peripheralsurface 70 and each of the ears 36 have an exterior peripheral surface72. The ears 36 are configured so as to create a predetermined clearancegap 74 between its exterior peripheral surface 72 and the correspondinginterior surface 70 of its respective notch 62 during use until anpredetermined amount of wear has occurred on the abutting end surface 68of the adapter 14, whereby contact between the peripheral surfaces 70,72 of the ears 36 and notches 62 provides a visual indicator that theadapter 14 needs replacing due to an excessive amount of wear on theabutting end surface 68 thereof.

The top and bottom walls 52, 54 of the socket cavity 46 each have afirst portion 76 and a second stepped down forward end portion 78 (FIG.4). The first portions 76 generally taper toward each other from theopen end 48 toward the end wall 64. The second stepped down forward endportions 78 are disposed adjacent the end wall 64 and define a pair ofspaced apart and generally parallel end surfaces 80, 82. As best shownin FIG. 3, the top and bottom surfaces 26, 28 of the adapter 14 eachhave a first portion 84 disposed in a mating relationship with arespective one of the first portions 76 of top and bottom walls 52, 54of the socket cavity 46 and a second portion 86 transitioning from thefirst portion 84 to a generally flat orientation disposed in a matingrelationship with the end surfaces 80, 82 of second stepped down endportions 78 so as to define a pair of load bearing surfaces 88, 90disposed in abutting contact with the end surfaces 80, 82 respective ofthe socket cavity, through which vertical loads on the tip 16 aretransferred into the adapter 14.

As mentioned earlier, the compression retainer 18 is used to detachablyretain tip 16 onto adapter 14. The elongate retainer 18 is compressiblein a longitudinal direction, but substantially non-compressible in atransverse direction. As shown in FIG. 7, retainer 18 is disposed alonga longitudinal axis 94 and has a pair of solid steel opposite endportions 96, 98 and a compressible middle portion 100. Each of the endportions 96,98 have a circular cross-section with centers coincident tothe longitudinal axis 94 and are capable of carrying, in compression, ahigh load oriented radially to the end portions 96,98. The compressiblemiddle portion 100 is disposed between the opposite end portions 96,98and includes a coil compression spring 102 whereby the retainer 18 isprovided with a predetermined free length along its longitudinal axis 94when the spring 102 is in a noncompressed state and a shorter compressedlength when the spring 102 is in a compressed state.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, one of the top and bottom walls 52,54 of thesocket cavity 46 has an elongate retainer opening 104 adapted forreceiving the elongate retainer 18. Retainer opening 104 is oriented ina direction transverse to the longitudinal axis 20 of the tip 16.Preferably, the retainer opening 104 is provided in the top wall 52 asshown in FIGS. 1 & 2. The retainer opening 104 defines a transverselyextending, forwardly facing first abutment surface 106 (FIG. 4) alongthe rearward side thereof adapted for engagement with the retainer 22.The adapter 14 is provided with a retainer pocket 108 on its top andthrough the upper rib 32. As best shown in FIG. 3, the retainer pocket108 is disposed in alignment with the retainer opening 104 when the tip16 is mounted onto the adapter 14 and provides a second abutment surface110 disposed in a generally spaced, diametrically opposing relationshipto the first abutment surface 106 in the tip 16.

It should be noted at this point that the retainer opening 104 in thetip 16 is provided with a predetermined length that is less than thefree length but greater than the compressed length of the retainer 18 inorder to permit the insertion of the retainer 18 through the opening 104when in the compressed state but to prevent the escape of the retainer18 therethrough when in the noncompressed state.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The tip and adapter assembly 10 constructed in accordance with thepresent invention affords many advantages of prior devices. Forinstance, excessive loads can be exerted on the tip 16 when it is usedto pry out large rocks or boulders from the earth. Such forces can breakeither the tip or adapter 14. As the adapter is more costly and takeslonger to replace in view of being welded to the bucket cutting edge 12,it is much more desirable to have the tip 16 break, rather than theadapter 14. The construction of the tip 16 with the longitudinallyextending notches 62 in the side walls 50 of the socket cavity 46ensures that the tip 16 will break first before the adapter 14 bysignificantly, but controllably, weakening the tip against verticalloads, i.e., loads normal to the direction of travel 13. Such notches 62also serve a second purpose in conjunction with the ears 36 on the sidesurfaces 30 of the adapter 14. Such purpose is to provide a visualindicator of wear on the end surface 68 of the nose 24 of the adapter14. This visual indicator is provided by the disappearance of the gap 74when the interior peripheral surface 70 of the notch 62 comes intocontact with the exterior peripheral surface 72 of the ears 36. Thedisappearance of the gap 74 is gauged to occur when a certain amount ofwear occurs on the end surface 68 through abutting contact with endsurface 66. This certain amount of wear correlates with the desired timeto replace the adapter 14 so as to prevent excessive looseness of thetip on the adapter that would otherwise result in accelerated wear anddamage to the tip 16 and even failure or loss of the tip.

The combination of the ribs 32,34 and grooves 56,58 provide additionalload bearing surfaces for transferring torsional loads on the tip 16into the adapter 14. The grooves 56,58 also provide a second purpose byserving as visual wear indicators for the tip 16 by creating a hole whensufficient material has been worn away on the top and/or bottom walls52,54 so as to wear through to the grooves.

The present retainer 18 is easily installed onto and removed from theretainer opening 104 of the tip 16 without the use of special tools andwithout the exertion of a large amount of effort so as to make tipreplacement quick and easy. To install, the retainer 18 is compressed toits compressed length so as to pass through the retainer opening 104.This may be accomplished by placing the retainer 18 in the retaineropening 104 and tapping down with a hammer to compress the compressiblemiddle portion 100 of the retainer so as to insert the retainer intoretainer pocket 108. Once in the pocket 108, the retainer 18 willre-expand to its longer noncompressed length so as to prevent its escapefrom the pocket through the retainer opening. Once in the pocket, thesolid end portions 96,98 are adapted to abut the first and secondabutment surfaces 106,110, respectively to prevent the tip from comingoff the adapter in the primary direction of travel 24.

Other aspects and advantages of the present invention of this inventioncan be obtained through a study of the drawings, the disclosure and theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A tip and adapter assembly for an earthworkingbucket, comprising: an elongated adapter having a rear mounting portionadapted for mounting the adapter to said bucket and a front tip mountingnose for receiving a bucket tip, said tip mounting nose having a topsurface, a bottom surface and a pair of side surfaces, each of said topand bottom surfaces having a longitudinally extending, centrallydisposed rib protruding therefrom, and each of said side surfaces havinga centrally located ear protruding therefrom; and a replaceable tiphaving an elongated body disposed along a longitudinal axis and taperingfrom a wide rearward mounting end portion to a narrow forward groundengaging end portion, said mounting end portion having a rearwardlyopening socket cavity for receiving the front tip mounting nose of saidadapter, said socket cavity having pair of side walls, a top wall and abottom wall, said top and bottom walls each having a central,longitudinally disposed recessed groove therein for receiving arespective one of said ribs of said adapter, and each of said side wallshaving a notch therethrough adapted to receive a respective one of saidears of said adapter.
 2. The tip and adapter assembly of claim 1 whereinsaid socket cavity has an open end and wherein each of said notches aregenerally U-shaped and extend forward from said open end toward saidground engaging end portion of the tip, each notch having a lengthsufficient to weaken said tip so as act as a fuse whereby before avertical force acting upon the ground engaging end portion of the tipthat would be sufficient to cause the breaking of said adapter on whichsaid tip is mounted will result in the breakage of the tip first.
 3. Thetip and adapter assembly of claim 2 wherein said cavity has an end walldefining a planar force transmitting surface oriented perpendicular tosaid longitudinal axis and said tip mounting nose of said adapter has aplanar front end surface disposed in abutting contact with said planarsurface of said cavity when said tip is mounted on said adapter, wherebylongitudinally oriented forces on said tip are transmitted into saidadapter through said abutting planar end surfaces of said tip andadapter.
 4. The tip and adapter assembly of claim 3 wherein each of saidnotches has an interior peripheral surface and each of said ears has anexterior peripheral surface, said ears being configured so as to createa gap between its exterior peripheral surface and the correspondinginterior surface of its respective notch during use until anpredetermined amount of wear has occurred on the abutting surface of theadapter, whereby contact between the peripheral surfaces of the ears andnotches provides a visual indicator that the adapter needs replacing dueto an excessive amount of wear on said abutting surface thereof.
 5. Thetip and adapter assembly of claim 4 wherein said top and bottom walls ofthe socket cavity each have a first portion, said first portionsgenerally tapering toward each other from said open end toward said endwall and a second stepped down forward end portion adjacent said endwall defining a pair of spaced apart and generally parallel endsurfaces, and said top and bottom of said adapter each having a firstportion disposed in a mating relationship with a respective one of saidfirst portions of top and bottom walls of the socket cavity and a secondportion transitioning from said first portion to a generally flatorientation disposed in a mating relationship with said end surfaces ofsecond stepped down end portion so as to define a pair of load bearingsurfaces disposed in abutting contact with said end surfaces of thesocket cavity, through which vertical loads on said tip are transferredinto said adapter.
 6. The tip and adapter assembly of claim 1 includingan elongate retainer for detachably retaining said tip on said adapter,said retainer being compressible in a longitudinal direction, butsubstantially non-compressible in a transverse direction.
 7. The tip andadapter assembly of claim 6 wherein one of said top and bottom walls ofthe socket cavity has an elongate retainer opening adapted for receivingsaid retainer in a direction transverse to said longitudinal axis, saidretainer opening defining a transversely extending, forwardly facingabutment surface along a rearward side thereof adapted for engagementwith said retainer.
 8. The tip and adapter assembly of claim 7 whereinsaid retainer is a compression spring retainer having a pair of solidsteel end portions and a compressible middle portion.
 9. A replaceablebucket tip adapted to be detachably mounted to a mounting nose of abucket adapter by means of a retainer, said replaceable bucket tipcomprising: an elongated body disposed along a longitudinal axis andtapering from a wide rearward mounting end portion to a narrow forwardground engaging end portion, said mounting end portion having arearwardly opening socket cavity having a rectangularly shaped open end,said cavity being defined by pair of side walls, a top wall and a bottomwall, each of said top and bottom walls having a central, longitudinallydisposed recessed groove therein, and each of said side walls beinggenerally parallel to each other and each having a generally U-shapednotch extending forward from said open end toward said ground engagingend, said notch having a length sufficient to weaken said tip so as actas a fuse whereby before a vertical force acting upon the groundengaging end portion of the tip that would be sufficient to cause thebreaking of said adapter on which said tip is mounted will result in thebreakage of the tip first.
 10. The replaceable bucket tip of claim 9wherein said socket cavity includes an end wall defining a planar forcetransmitting surface oriented perpendicular to said longitudinal axis.11. The replaceable bucket tip of claim 9 wherein said top and bottomwalls each having a first portion generally tapering toward each otherfrom said open end toward said end wall and a second stepped downforward end portion adjacent said end wall defining a pair of spacedapart and generally parallel end surfaces.
 12. The replaceable buckettip of claim 10 wherein one of said top and bottom walls includes anelongate retainer opening therethrough, said retainer opening having atransversely extending, forwardly facing side with an arcuately shapedabutment surface thereon adapted for engagement with said retainer.